List of All Articles with Tag 'sport'

The European Court of Human Rights is expected to deliver what could be the final judgment on Tuesday in Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya’s yearslong legal challenge against track and field's contentious sex eligibility rules

The Times is eliminating its sports desk.

A’ja Wilson is all too happy to show off her coveted corner locker

Aaron Judge announces he won't go to the All-Star Game

Teams from the same country will have more chances to play each other when the Champions League and other European club competitions are revamped next year

New Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has not asked for any assurances over Harry Kane’s future, but will use this week’s meeting with the forward to lay out his vision to make the club successful. Postecoglou faced the media for the first time on Monday and the discussion quickly turned to Kane, who is attracting interest from Bayern Munich amid reports the Bundesliga champions have bid for the England captain. Kane will return to training on Wednesday and ex-Celtic boss Postecoglou revealed how he expects the conversation with the 29-year-old to go. “I haven’t had any assurances and I wouldn’t expect any assurances,” Postecoglou explained. “That’s just my nature. I just kind of go along and try to concentrate on the things I know right now. “What I know right now is that Harry is part of this squad and he’s looking forward to coming back to training and being amongst these players and starting to work together. “I don’t think it’s my role to sit down and treat people in a manner because of their circumstances. I’m really big on treating everyone the same and Harry has already entrenched himself in the history of this football club. “He’s a very important part. He’s one of the premier strikers in the world and I want him involved. My conversation with him will be about how we can make this club successful and I’ve got no doubts that’s what he wants as well. “I doubt it’s going to be defined in the manner that people think it’s going to be. It’s not going to be a conversation where we walk out of the room and have an understanding. I don’t want that kind of conversation. “What I want is to introduce myself to Harry and give him my vision of the football club and get a sense from him on what he thinks the club needs to do to be successful and walk out on that training pitch and try to make it happen.” Tottenham’s stance on Kane has not changed since Manchester City tried to sign the forward in 2021. City’s advances were turned down and Spurs plan to reject any bids for the forward this summer despite his contract now entering its final 12 months. Kane is not the only senior figure at the club with an uncertain future. Captain Hugo Lloris is expected to depart and a bloated squad – after 12 players have returned from loan spells – will need to be trimmed. Postecoglou added: “We’re in that stage, like most clubs, where you kind of know that there will be activity between now and the start of the season and the end of the window. There will be some players who won’t be here and some players that will come in. “Again in my mind, I try to keep that with the understanding that until something is certain, I’m not going to commit myself either way to whether a player is going to be here or not. There’s no point in wasting energy on something that may or may not happen. “So far the lads we’ve had in have been excellent. They’ve been brilliant with the staff in adapting and implementing the things I want and we’ll keep moving along. “We’ll get the rest of the squad back in the next couple of days so it will be great to see everyone in the building.” Postecoglou will attempt to bring in a contrasting style of football to Spurs’ last three managers with Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte all favouring a pragmatic approach with counter-attacking football. The Australian laid out his plans on Monday to bring back the aggressive, dominant football that is intrinsically linked to Tottenham’s history. “Anyone that has charted the course of my career will know if you watch my teams play, they all have the same basic elements in there,” the 57-year-old said. “The elements of it will be – we want to be an aggressive team, a dominant team, a team who takes the game to every opposition home and away. My goal is to try and make some special moments here and create something special for this great football club Ange Postecoglou “I think for me the history of this football club kind of suggests that is the best fit for it. “I am the kind of guy who loves a challenge. I love a build, I love a rebuild. That is where I feel I am at my best. “Now my goal is to try and make some special moments here and create something special for this great football club as well.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Daniil Medvedev sails past injured Jiri Lehecka into Wimbledon quarter-finals New contract for British GP ‘just a matter of time’, says Motorsport UK boss Tearful Beatriz Haddad Maia retires from fourth-round clash with Elena Rybakina

Josiah Harrell has urged fans not to ‘feel sorry’ for him after a pre-fight scan revealed that the UFC athlete has a rare brain disease. The American, 24, was due to fight Jack Della Maddalena in a welterweight bout at UFC 290 on Saturday (8 July), serving as a replacement for the injured Sean Brady. However, Harrell was also forced to pull out of his planned clash with Della Maddalena, when a pre-fight scan revealed that Harrell has moyamoya – a rare brain disease. “Small [bump] in the road,” the unbeaten fighter wrote on Instagram. “We did everything on our side. Got all of our medicals redone this week. Check out on all of them except something came up in the MRI scan that they wanted me to make sure was nothing serious. “Turns out I have a brain disease that is treatable and [I’ll be] back up and running asap. Sorry to everyone I know, [who either] wanted to see me get my head beat in or [wanted] to see me with my hand raised. I have very little information on what’s going on but I do know I’ll be a lab Rat for a while, which is fitting. “A wild week, a wild life. I will get better, I’ll keep y’all updated on the process, thank you for all your prayers and love. We will heal up quickly.” In a later post, Harrell added: “Don’t feel sorry for me. Mom doesn’t work but people I love do, so until they don’t have to ima be at this for a long time. We will get more news out soon, have to do some testing. “You should be excited. [I don’t know] how much it has limited my ability to compete, but I’m guessing it would have to do with the oxygen levels to my brain, so ya boy might have even better cardio. I’m a hopeful person, so what fight card should [we] aim for? (4-12 months).” Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More UFC 290: Alexander Volkanovski stops Yair Rodriguez on wild night of fights Donald Trump high-fives fans at UFC 290 in Las Vegas UFC schedule 2023: Every major fight happening this year

Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva showed her inexperience after a week of showing her maturity at her first Wimbledon

Actor Damian Lewis has gone viral following his British Grand Prix performance after he sang the National Anthem in a rather unusual way. The 52-year-old, who has recently leapt into music, was joined by a saxophonist, as he belted out 'God Save The King' in a style comparable to Elvis. Some viewers even claimed that they noticed the likes of George Russell and Lando Norris 'trying to keep a straight face' at the performance. 'Someone watched the Elvis film a few too many times', one viewer tweeted. However, Lewis wrote that he was 'honoured' to have been asked. Click here to sign up for our newsletters

Disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar has been stabbed multiple times during an altercation with another incarcerated person at a federal prison in Florida

Paris Saint-Germain are now leading the race for Eintracht Frankfurt's Randal Kolo Muani, in a move that could well have a knock-on effect on the rest of a highly-competitive striker's market this summer. While the pursuit is entirely separate to Kylian Mbappe's future, since the French champions are looking for a No 9 regardless, it may well affect the plans of other clubs. The 24-year-old is almost seen as the ideal striker target this summer in how he offers an increasingly rare set of qualities but is also gettable for a relatively reasonable price, with all of Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur having seriously looked. It is understood that PSG's interest has influenced Bayern's position, especially as they accelerate attempts to sign Harry Kane. The German champions had been seen as favourites to secure Kolo Muani just a few months ago but that has now changed. PSG are understood to have successfully sold the idea that a return to his home nation will suit him better at this point in his career, as Luis Enrique attempts to build a new stage of the Qatari project. While Frankfurt had previously set a price of around £100m, it is believed a deal can be struck for £80m. That has also shaped United's plans although there had already been a rethink about how to apportion their summer budget, with Atalanta's Rasmus Hojlund potentially offering a cheaper option, who Erik ten Hag also greatly admires.

Sir Alex Ferguson managed Manchester United for 26 years and 1500 games, but he only attended 1497 of them. He missed three: one for his son Mark’s wedding, one for his sister-in-law’s funeral, and a League Cup tie against Scunthorpe in 2010 when he went on a scouting trip. The sense then was that he was watching United’s Champions League opponents Valencia; instead the teenage goalkeeper in the opposition side, Atletico Madrid, was the focus of his attention. A dozen years since he was signed, David de Gea’s departure removes the last survivor of the Ferguson era: for the first time since the relegation season of 1973-74, United in 2023-24 will not feature anyone who has made or will make an appearance for the great Scot. For the first time since 1934-35, there will be none who have played or will play for Ferguson or Sir Matt Busby. Erik ten Hag calls upon Ferguson’s counsel but there are ways in which he makes a break with the past, as Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo can testify. But De Gea was always intended to be part of Ferguson’s legacy: bought when the manager was approaching his 70th birthday, signed with his successors in mind. Ferguson could be selfish and selfless and De Gea reflected the latter: United got 545 appearances from the Spaniard, the seventh most in their history and second only to Wayne Rooney among those Ferguson bought, and 190 clean sheets, 10 more than even Peter Schmeichel. And yet his is a legacy that leads itself to different conclusions. De Gea’s dozen seasons brought a lone league title: the previous 13 produced eight, with four Champions League final appearances and two victories on the biggest stage. De Gea’s last decade comprised of United’s wilderness years; in the worst of them, 2021-22, one of their most eloquent critics was the goalkeeper himself, when his own excellence gave him freedom to express his frustration. But his last game provided a sadly fitting end: De Gea was beaten inside 13 seconds in the FA Cup final, then horribly culpable for Ilkay Gundogan’s ultimately decisive second goal. His final year felt a series of indignities: United’s Europa League exit to Sevilla owed much to a De Gea shocker, capped by an embarrassing error. His last few years at Old Trafford were pockmarked by two problems: an increasing number of mistakes – far more forgivable in his good years – and his limitations in distribution; many of his best saves were with his feet, but he struggled to use them to find teammates. Perhaps August’s 4-0 defeat to Brentford was the beginning of the end in that respect; it was evident he was an imperfect fit for Ten Hag’s style of play. It underlined the way that De Gea seemed old before his time, an old-fashioned goalkeeper in a fast-changing role. He is only two years older than Alisson, three older than Ederson, less than five the senior of his probable successor Andre Onana, but seemingly plucked from another generation, one where a goalkeeper’s job did not extend beyond stopping shots. The hashtag at his peak was “DaveSaves”. The issue was that Dave did not kick as well. De Gea was the future once; at 32, he has become the past. He almost joined Real Madrid in 2015, but for a faulty fax machine, but there is no such scramble for his services now. Even before his contract talks with United ended, it became likelier he would not be first choice. Staying would have always involved a sizeable pay cut; in part because his previous deal was so lucrative. He was famously the world’s best-paid goalkeeper; Ole Gunnar Solskjaer used to lazily parrot the line he was the world’s best long after evidence suggested otherwise. But at his peak, he was surely in the top five. He had days when he seemed unbeatable. His 14 saves against Arsenal in 2017 came in an extraordinary display of defiance. United branded him a “legend” in the announcement that he would go. Perhaps he both was and wasn’t: De Gea was sometimes a beacon of excellence in mediocre teams, especially in the years immediately after Ferguson’s retirement. He was named United’s player of the year a joint record four times, but that often reflected a lack of competition. Schmeichel and Edwin van der Sar never won the award but they were Ferguson’s two greatest goalkeeping signings. Each chose his exit and each played his last game in a Champions League final, Schmeichel lifting the trophy in 1999. De Gea’s departure has more common denominators with that of the only other goalkeeper to play 500 games for United: Alex Stepney ended up being dropped by Dave Sexton, his fifth manager. He, too, had had his greatest days in his mid-twenties. There was a point when it seemed like De Gea would be a fixture for years to come, perhaps ending up second only to Ryan Giggs in United’s all-time appearance list. But he started to look a man out of time, even before the interest in Onana suggested he would be a man out of the team. But outstanding as De Gea was in the mid-2010s, as the last link to Ferguson is severed, it serves as a reminder that the last decade has scarcely gone to plan. Read More Why Onana is such an upgrade on De Gea for Man United De Gea confirms Man United exit with ‘farewell message’ to fans Man United transfer news: Mount signs and bid made for Onana